Masculinities

Check out this fascinating collection of pictures titled Masculinities by Chad States (some NSFW). When finding subjects, he intentionally left it open to people of all genders. It's a complex picture of the ways people interpret their masculinity. Here are some choice quotes from his subjects:

"The first thing I do when I walk in a room is figure out which male could kick my ass and which female I would like to fuck. Sometimes this is so subconscious it is alarming." - Andrew

"To me, it's about being comfortable with myself. I like the way I look, am comfortable with myself and enjoy being a man." - John

"When I wear men's clothes I feel more comfortable and confident in how I look on the outside which now matches the inside." - Liz

"I am masculine because I abandon women after taking their love. Because when you study Freud you don't let him study you. Because I study philsophy not literature." - Luke

"I want to show that, despite stereotypes, gay men can be masculine too." - Mike

via Jezebel and The Morning News.

Art and text

This has been sitting in my email for awhile so in a fung-shui cleaning frenzy, I thought I'd pass it on so I can finally delete the email.

There's an artist, Lalla Essaydi, doing amazing work tying together gender, Islam and aesthetics in beautiful ways.

Converging Territories (2003-2004)

Arab-Esque (2006)

The first one is more indicative of her general style, but I'm really intrigued by the bottom picture. It's by far her most risque, but I like it anyway. Here's some more of her work from artnet.

Failing at Irony and Alienating Your Allies: The Liberal Dude's Guide to Satire

So I open my blog reader and the Huffington Post. What do I have the pleasure to find?

Oh Christ, who's the genius behind this?

I know this might be rocket science to liberal dudez who think things like rape are funny, but this really tasteless and poor excuse for satire is not inducing anything but my gag reflex. You know you fail at irony when your art work is indecipherable from the message of those you intend to mock. While I was sleeping, someone decided that mocking the Republicans by depicting the Obamas with racist stereotypes was effective and funny. I can imagine a bunch of balding upper-class white dudes giving each other congratulatory back slaps around some editor's desk at The New Yorker, engaging in mutual masturbation inflation of their over large egos as their wit goes to press.

You know what's really funny? Mocking Nazis by walking around in public, in places where there may or may not be Jews, and acting and dressing in such a manner completely identical to Nazis. So what if you offend a few Jews along the way? Your completely nonsensical message must be conveyed in the manner you see fit, even if you offend a demographic that would otherwise be allies. I might be white, but even I know that the picturing of an afro-sporting woman in military fatigues is probably a dig at her deviant blackness and her radical opposition to white culture. Also, if you think drawing racist depictions of prominent political figures is funny, you might be racist.

The purpose of satire is to shock and inflame your opposition. If your illustration could be used as a poster for the far right and you are offending your political allies, then it's about time someone fired you.

Then again, I am not really surprised. Anyone remember this? :

That was a "liberal" blog, the DailyKos, really failing to understand the nuances of irony.

Heads up to white dudez: if you think the appropriate manner to object to bigots on the right is to be a leftist racist, on the name of "humor", kindly get the fuck out of my political party.

(Cross-posted)

Feminist Graffiti

I took the picture in the heading of this blog one day after a sign appeared on the door to my dorm suite that said: How would your life be different if gender roles did not exist? These signs had been popping up all over campus, and no one seemed to know who was responsible for them.

Then last week, after I got out of my film class, I noticed a good deal of sidewalk chalking done in the same spirit. Here are the pictures that I took last Thursday with Kate, after our radio show. They aren't the best because they started to rub away, so captions will accompany the pictures.

How would life be different if gender roles did not exist?

Society trains gender roles.

How has your life been influenced?

The unknown gender-chalker (as I refer to them), drew bubbles connecting all the different sayings with "?'s" in them. Someone else wrote in this one, True dat! Start small, which I think is a great acknowledgment of what this artist did: something small that started a lot of conversation. Good for them, whoever they are.

Yale miscarriage art update

Ok, so here's an update on the Yale College student who supposedly impregnanted herself and then induced miscarraiges.

Last night Yale University released a press statement saying she never did any of those things and that "the entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body."

Then today, the Yale Daily News published an article saying that she DID impregnant and induce miscarriages.

But in an interview later Thursday afternoon, Shvarts defended her work and
called the University’s statement “ultimately inaccurate.” She reiterated that
she engaged in the nine-month process she publicized on Wednesday in a press
release that was first reported in the News: repeatedly using a needleless
syringe to insert semen into herself, then taking abortifacient herbs at the end
of her menstrual cycle to induce bleeding. Thursday evening, in a tour of her
art studio, she shared with the News video footage she claimed depicted her
attempts at self-induced miscarriages.

...

As more news outlets posted their stories online early Friday morning, Shvarts responded to the University’s second statement, asserting that her project was, in her words, “University-sanctioned.”

“I’m not going to absolve them by saying it was some sort of hoax when it wasn’t,” she said. “I started out with the University on board with what I was doing, and because of the media frenzy they’ve been trying to dissociate with me. Ultimately I want to get back to a point where they renew their support because ultimately this was something they supported.”

She did, she didn't... This is all confusing. Right now it's hard to separate the art from the controversy. Or maybe the controversy is the art itself.

Abortion a medium for art, political discourse

From the Yale Daily News: For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse

Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts' project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock — saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

But Shvarts insists her concept was not designed for "shock value."

"I hope it inspires some sort of discourse," Shvarts said. "Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it's not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone."

...

The display of Schvarts' project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts' self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.

Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.

I'm not sure how I feel about the project yet but it's an interesting idea. The mixing of the sheets with the video is really unique - a demonstration of the tangible and intangible, the stillness of the sheets and the vividness of the film while both have the potential to evoke very emotional responses.

I want to see the actual installation before I make any sort of opinion on the work itself. If anyone's in the New Haven area and wants to check it out, the exhibit is in Holcombe Hall on Chapel Street, open from April 22 to May 1.

What do other people think about it?

UPDATE:

Yale released this press statement today:

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

Change anyone's opinion?